Ready For Takeoff - Turn Your Aviation Passion Into A Career

By Captain George Nolly

What's Ready For Takeoff - Turn Your Aviation Passion Into A Career about?

The Ready For Takeoff podcast will help you transform your aviation passion into an aviation career. Every week we bring you instruction and inspiring interviews with top aviators in their field who reveal their flight path to an exciting career in the skies.

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Ready For Takeoff - Turn Your Aviation Passion Into A Career episodes:

12.03.2023
RFT 606: 787 Pilot/NIFA Mentor Andrew Ross
Andrew Ross is a pilot at a major airline flying the Boeing 787 domestically and internationally. Andrew has served as a union representative, committee chairman, and is a member of the National Education Steering Committee for the ALPA. He has...
10.30.2023
RFT 605: Triple MiG-Killer Rico Rodriguez
Cesar "Rico" Rodriguez's first operational assignment was flying the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II at Suwon Air Base, South Korea; in 1985 he was selected to attend the Instructor Pilot Course at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas then spent the following three years...
09.16.2023
RFT 604: Airliner Cargo Fire Systems
On the afternoon of May 11, 1996, Valet Flight 592 pushed back from gate G2 in Miami after a delay of 1 hour and 4 minutes due to mechanical problems.There were 110 people on board: 105 passengers, mainly from Florida...
07.29.2023
RFT 603: Stunt Pilot Scott Kartvedt
Watching Top Gun Scott Kartvedt watched Top Gun in 1986 just like many other young men but then went on to be a Navy pilot, something many of us just dreamed of. He applied to and was selected to the...
06.09.2023
RFT 602: Home Builder Dan Verdoorn
Dan Verdoorn started his flying as a young child, riding his bicycle to the local airport and watching airplanes take off and land from outside the fence. Finally, a pilot in a J-3 Cub asked him if he wanted to...
05.22.2023
RFT 601: Marine/Airline Pilot Tom Speer
During the Vietnam War, with two years of college, Tom Speer was facing the draft. Out of curiosity, he visited a Marine recruiter and saw a photo of an F-4 and was hooked. The recruiter sent him to take numerous...
05.05.2023
RFT 600 Captured By Love Interview With Lee Ellis
Captured by Love shares the real love stories of 20 Vietnam War POWs. Some had wives who started a movement that changed American foreign policy. Others came home and had to start over, while five single men met the loves of...
04.04.2023
RFT 597: Divine Intervention - Let's Stop Believing Our Own Press!
Sully Sullenberger: "I'm very glad that the Federal Aviation Administration has ensured the safety of the traveling public by wisely denying the waiver request by Republic Airways to cut in half the pilot experience requirement. U.S. airlines have attained an...
03.08.2023
RFT 288: Cancer Survivor/Airline Pilot David Whitson
From Air Line Pilots Association: In September 2016, Capt. David Whitson (United) was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a condition in which white blood cells that manage the body’s immune system form abnormally. The then B-787 first officer was...
02.15.2023
RFT 596: Medivac Pilot Bud Willis
Named Tennessee's Outstanding Young Man for service to his community, state and country, Bud Willis has been well recognized for his first book, Bluestocking, released in 2009, now in its second printing. A native Tennessean, Willis grew up...
01.30.2023
RFT 595: Aviation Photographer/Author Scott Dworkin
Scott Dworkin is an aerial photographer, contractor, and photojournalist based outside Los Angeles, California. He has had a lifelong passion for aviation and photography, and after honing his skills as a photographer for many years, he decided to combine the...
01.14.2023
RFT 594: Goals for 2023
I'd like to tell you about a great new podcast called Air Traffic Out Of Control. The show brings you curated ATC recordings that are funny, interesting and downright unbelievable. The show publishes a full episode every Wednesday and short...
12.23.2022
RFT 593: Steven Myers
The cornerstone of courage is optimism. In 1992, at the end of the Cold War, Steven Myers became the first American since Charles Lindbergh in 1931, to pilot an aircraft into the Russian Kamchatka peninsula. There he formed one of...
11.19.2022
RFT 592.1: POW Dave Carey
Dave Carey was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, in 1942. He entered the U.S. Naval Academy in June 1960, and was commissioned an Ensign in the U.S. Navy on June 4, 1964. Carey next attended flight training at NAS Pensacola, Florida,...
11.17.2022
RFT 592: POW Dave Carey
Dave Carey was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, in 1942. He entered the U.S. Naval Academy in June 1960, and was commissioned an Ensign in the U.S. Navy on June 4, 1964. Carey next attended flight training at NAS Pensacola, Florida,...
11.07.2022
RFT 591: Airline Pilot John Barton
As a Captain, John F. Barton Jr. has been a Captain on the Boeing 767-300/757 and 737 Aircraft. He taught as an instructor the Boeing 777 aircraft, at the United Airlines Training Center from 1997 till 1999, He began his...
11.02.2022
RFT 590: Pilot/Author Roger Johnson
Roger Johnson is a Captain with a major airline and a former Fighter Pilot in the USAF. He has been flying for 48 years and has flown throughout the world. He is the second generation of being trained and operating...
10.27.2022
RFT 589: Operation Linebacker
Operation Linebacker, the code name for the new interdiction campaign, would have four objectives: to isolate North Vietnam from its sources of supply by destroying railroad bridges and rolling stock in and around Hanoi and north-eastwards toward the Chinese frontier;...
10.18.2022
RFT 588: Sterile Cockpit
by Robert L. Sumwalt It's no secret. When a flight crew's attention is diverted from the task of flying, the chance of error increases. Over the years there have been dozens of air carrier accidents that occurred when the crew...
09.19.2022
RFT 587: Air Force Pay Cut
Enlisted airmen who work in some of the Air Force's most difficult jobs will receive from $900 to $5,400 less annually beginning next month as the service faces financial challenges that affect the ranks. Hundreds of service members will see cuts...
09.12.2022
RFT 586: September 11th Retropsective
The minimum age to obtain an Airline Transport Pilot certificate is 23, which means that it is possible that new airline pilots were as young as two years old when the attacks of September 11, 2001 occurred. The world changed...
09.05.2022
RFT 585: Airline Pilot Art Ziccardi
Art Ziccardi learned to fly as a teenager after participating in Civil Air Patrol for four years. He attended an aviation college and accumulated thousands of hours as a SFI while there. He later obtained a Master's Degree and held...
08.29.2022
RFT 584: The Cautionary Tale of Abel Castillo
Abel Castillo worked his way up to 1500 hours as a CFI and was hired by a regional airline, rising to the position of Captain on a Regional Jet. His goal was to advance to a legacy airline, and he...
08.16.2022
RFT 583: Great Balls of Fire
I turned off my Big Ben alarm clock at 0230, the usual wake-up time for our Linebacker mission. When the scheduling board simply indicated “Special”, we knew it would be a 0400 mass briefing at Wing Headquarters for a bombing...
08.09.2022
RFT 582: Protecting Taiwan
The 18th Tactical Fighter Wing based at Kadena AB, Okinawa maintained two Squadron of McDonnell F-4C Phantom II aircraft from November 1972 until May 1975. On 6 November 1972, the 18th Wing dispatched the McDonnell Douglas F-4C/D Phantom II fighters of 44th Fighter Squadron and 67th Fighter Squadron to the Ching Chuan Kang...
07.26.2022
RFT 581: Airline Pilot Murder/Suicides
Preliminary evidence suggests the crash of a China Eastern Airlines Corp. jet in March may be the latest such tragedy, a person familiar with the investigation said. If confirmed, that would make it the fourth since 2013, bringing deaths in...
07.11.2022
RFT 580: Author Matt Lohmeier
Matthew Lohmeier is author of the bestselling book Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military. His book Irresistible Revolution was published in May 2021, at which time Matt was a respected active-duty commander in...
06.27.2022
RFT 579: Miami Air Flight 293 Flight Attendant Melissa Gonzales
On May 3, 2019, Miami Air Flight 293, a Boeing 737 that took off from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, attempted to land at Naval Air Station Jacksonville. The jet overshot the runway and eventually settled in a shallow part of the...
06.20.2022
RFT 578: Congressman August Pfluger
Serving his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives, Congressman August Pfluger represents 29 counties in Texas’ 11th congressional district, including the cities of San Angelo, Llano, Brownwood, Granbury, Midland, Odessa, and much of the Permian Basin—the top-oil and gas producing...
06.14.2022
RFT 577: My Covid Journey
On May 18th I was at the peak of health. Prior to my instructional period at the United Airlines Flight Training Center, I went to the company exercise room and pumped out my usual 30 reps of bench press with...
05.30.2022
RFT 576: Memorial Day
For today's podcast we are presenting the audio from an outstanding film written and narrated by previous RFT guest Major General John Borling.
05.23.2022
RFT 575: Gabe Evans
My name is Gabe Evans, and I’m running for Colorado House District 48. I’m a Christian, Colorado native, husband, father, and own/operate a family farm in southern Weld County. I love my country and state. That’s why, after earning a...
05.16.2022
RFT 574: Author Kine Paulsen
In Demystiflying, Kine Paulsen tells you what you need to do in order to become a pilot by going inside of the minds of more than 200 pilots. Paulsen deciphers the meaning behind even the most basic pilot terms and concepts to...
05.11.2022
RFT 573: Dingus Flight
Operation Linebacker launched on May 10, 1972. It marked the first bombing of Hanoi in North Vietnam since the end of Operation Rolling Thunder in November 1968. I was a ground spare, waiting to launch in the even that any...
05.09.2022
RFT 572: F-15 Pilot Chad Robbins
From LinkedIn: 4500+ hour professional pilot (instructor / evaluator / maintenance test), educator, and aviation/leadership/organizational management consultant built on a foundation of 21 years as a fighter pilot in the US Air Force (F-15E Strike Eagle). Highly proficient in the...
04.25.2022
RFT 571: Film-Maker Louisa Merino
Directed by Louisa Merino (Managing to Win: The Story of Strat-O-Matic Baseball) and produced by Melissa Hibbard (The Glass House) and Oscar winner Ed Cunningham (Undefeated), the film tells the remarkable story of a World War II fighter pilot from New Jersey who flew the last...
04.18.2022
RFT 570: 21-Plane Owner John Hanson
There were more than 400 people on board the Boeing 747-400 that unexpectedly rolled into a left bank in Russian airspace over the Bering Sea, forcing pilots to maneuver to keep the airplane from rolling over and diving into the...
04.04.2022
RFT 568: Force Fight
3 March 1991, UA585, a 737-200Adv crashed on approach to Colorado Springs. The aircraft departed from controlled flight approximately 1,000 feet above the ground and struck an open field. After a 21-month investigation, the Board issued a report on the...
03.29.2022
RFT 567: Vietnam Veterans Day
On Tuesday, March 29, 2022, communities around the U.S. will pay tribute to Vietnam veterans and their families on National Vietnam War Veterans Day. U.S. involvement in Vietnam started slowly with an initial deployment of advisers in the early 1950s, grew incrementally through the...
03.25.2022
RFT 566 Medal of Honor Recipient Lance Sijan
Medal of Honor Citation: While on a flight over North Vietnam, Capt. Sijan ejected from his disabled aircraft and successfully evaded capture for more than six weeks. During this time, he was seriously injured and suffered from shock and extreme...
03.21.2022
RFT 565: Jennifer-Ruth "Romper" Green
Jennifer-Ruth Green continues to serve her fellow citizens in the United States Air Force Air Reserve Component and is now running to represent her fellow Hoosiers in Congress. A battle-proven leader, a trailblazer, and a selfless servant, Jennifer-Ruth Green is a candidate...
03.14.2022
RFT 563: World of Aviation's Al Malmberg
Al Malmberg is a 50-year radio veteran who currently hosts The World of Aviation radio program. (AM-1280-The Patriot) Other than this one hour a week show, Malmberg is enjoying retirement and doing lots of flying off a private strip in...
03.07.2022
RFT 562: Thunderbird Pilot Caroline "Blaze" Jensen
Oshkosh — It was a homecoming of sorts for Caroline Jensen on Thursday. When she arrived at EAA AirVenture, it was with a bang. Actually, it was a low rumble followed by a deafening screech that prompted spectators to stick fingers...
02.14.2022
RFT 561: Aviation Artist Rick Broome
Rick is one of the most unique artists in the world. He has been likened to such great artists as Rembrandt & Maxfield Parish. He is an Old World-Flemish style painter, meaning he paints using transparent colors to build depth...
02.01.2022
RFT 560: RAF Pilot/Author Peter Docker
Peter Docker is passionate about enabling people to unlock their natural talents and teaches leadership that is focused on commitment and human connection. This approach harnesses the collective wisdom of teams to generate extraordinary outcomes. Peter's commercial and industry experience...
01.20.2022
RFT 559: Good Moral Character
Good Moral Character VOLUME 5 (AIRMAN CERTIFICATION) CHAPTER 2 (TITLE 14 CFR PART 61 CERTIFICATION OF PILOTS AND FLIGHT INSTRUCTORS) Section 18 (Conduct an Airline Transport Pilot Certification, Including Additional Category/Class Rating) Paragraph 5-704 (ELIGIBILITY –ATP CERTIFICATE – AIRPLANE,...
01.10.2022
RFT 558: Bug Out!
Have you ever really thought about what you might do if a super-storm, earthquake, fire, pandemic, or flood were to force you to leave your home suddenly? What would you do that first day away, the third, or even two...
01.01.2022
RFT 557: Spread New Year Joy, Not COVID
What You Need to Know Delay travel until you are fully vaccinated. Check your destination’s COVID-19 situation before traveling. State, local, and territorial governments may have travel restrictions in place. Wearing a mask over your nose and mouth is...
12.28.2021
RFT 556: December Crashes
1 December 1993; Northwest Airlink (Express Airlines) BAe Jetstream 31; Hibbing, MN: The aircraft had a controlled flight into terrain about three miles (five km) from the runway threshold during an an excessively steep approach in conditions of snow and freezing...
12.21.2021
RFT 555: December Gear Problems
All December proceeds from the sale of Hamfist novels and the proceeds from the audiobook Hamfist Over The Trail will be donated to charity to help the victims of the tragic midwest tornadoes. December has a bad reputation for airline...

What's Ready For Takeoff - Turn Your Aviation Passion Into A Career about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Ready For Takeoff - Turn Your Aviation Passion Into A Career episodes:

RFT 606: 787 Pilot/NIFA Mentor Andrew Ross

RFT 605: Triple MiG-Killer Rico Rodriguez

RFT 604: Airliner Cargo Fire Systems

RFT 603: Stunt Pilot Scott Kartvedt

RFT 602: Home Builder Dan Verdoorn

RFT 601: Marine/Airline Pilot Tom Speer

RFT 600 Captured By Love Interview With Lee Ellis

RFT 597: Divine Intervention - Let's Stop Believing Our Own Press!

RFT 288: Cancer Survivor/Airline Pilot David Whitson

RFT 596: Medivac Pilot Bud Willis

RFT 595: Aviation Photographer/Author Scott Dworkin

RFT 594: Goals for 2023

RFT 593: Steven Myers

RFT 592.1: POW Dave Carey

RFT 592: POW Dave Carey

RFT 591: Airline Pilot John Barton

RFT 590: Pilot/Author Roger Johnson

RFT 589: Operation Linebacker

RFT 588: Sterile Cockpit

RFT 587: Air Force Pay Cut

RFT 586: September 11th Retropsective

RFT 585: Airline Pilot Art Ziccardi

RFT 584: The Cautionary Tale of Abel Castillo

RFT 583: Great Balls of Fire

RFT 582: Protecting Taiwan

RFT 581: Airline Pilot Murder/Suicides

RFT 580: Author Matt Lohmeier

RFT 579: Miami Air Flight 293 Flight Attendant Melissa Gonzales

RFT 578: Congressman August Pfluger

RFT 577: My Covid Journey

RFT 576: Memorial Day

RFT 575: Gabe Evans

RFT 574: Author Kine Paulsen

RFT 573: Dingus Flight

RFT 572: F-15 Pilot Chad Robbins

RFT 571: Film-Maker Louisa Merino

RFT 570: 21-Plane Owner John Hanson

RFT 568: Force Fight

RFT 567: Vietnam Veterans Day

RFT 566 Medal of Honor Recipient Lance Sijan

RFT 565: Jennifer-Ruth "Romper" Green

RFT 563: World of Aviation's Al Malmberg

RFT 562: Thunderbird Pilot Caroline "Blaze" Jensen

RFT 561: Aviation Artist Rick Broome

RFT 560: RAF Pilot/Author Peter Docker

RFT 559: Good Moral Character

RFT 558: Bug Out!

RFT 557: Spread New Year Joy, Not COVID

RFT 556: December Crashes

RFT 555: December Gear Problems